The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-09-24

clalme0 from their pulp1tS, Sanctltled
at the altar of prayer, and borne on the
wings of song, until the whole heart of
humanity shall be filed with divine
thoughts, desires and hopes, as with
the music of love. All of
The Forces are at Work,
necessary to bring about this grand re-
suit. There is God, and the earth is
his, and the "fullness thereof, the world
and they that dwell therein" These
grand doctrines are true and truth be-
longs to God. Truth is dear to God,
and he lendeth her the wings of time,
and giveth her all the ages of eternity
and every upbuilding agency on earth
he places at her command. The Sec
ular press of the world, which comes
like morning visitor to every house in
the land, bearing the record of the
world s doings and sayings, is messen-
ger of divine truth, in that it rebukes
with scoffing ridicule the dogmas of old
orthodoxy. Every pen which writes
chapter in the story books of our liter
allure, is weapon of truth, arming and
browning love as a hero, and branding
hate with shame and every poet who
sings, with each new song, brings to
us more harmony, and shows us more of
the oneness of God, more of the divin-
ity in man, and more of the SOULS
reaching out toward God and heaven
and if all art should be called upon to
produce its most perfect work, it would
be the picture of scene in which
the divine affections would be touched
by human distress, or of an immortal
family in an immortal home, without
vacant chair. These mighty forces, be-
ing outside of the church, are none the
less Gods forces, and he does not send
them forth in vain.
Look inside the orthodox churches,
and you will see earnest men with
Gods word in hand, magnifying Gods
love and forgetting his hate, while with
one hand they hold out to the world
the anchor of eternal hope, and with
the other they paint Gods bow of
promise and in the pews you will find
many silent laymen, whose intellects
are too clear to believe in "the Trim
ity;" whose hearts are too Christ-like to
believe in the Fall of Man," and whose
sense of justice would be shocked at
the thought of ''the Vicarious Atone
ment." and whose reason would be de-
throned if ''endless woe'' were true.
These ministers and laymen ''see but
in part, and know but in part,' but
they are nevertheless messengers of
truth; and although they are now en-
barrassed with creed which they can
neither believe nor preach, and which,
through fear of being communicated
for heresy, they dare not refute, still
they are silent forces, which are unseen
by the authorities Of old orthodoxy, and
are all the while undermining its very
foundations. They do not constitute
1.-THE New Orthodoxy for as yet they
are undiscovered heretics; but their
very embarrassment and inconsistent
predicament is one Of the factors prom
Using to the religious world new phil
osophy of creeds.
But there is another force greater
and more important still, because it is
the force which made all these other
forces possible; and that force is the
Universalist church. 1t too belongs to
God. He it was who raised up Potter
to build church and wait for preacher
whom God would send across the ocean,
and that preacher was John Murray
Following his ministry there came a
century of such bold and scholarly the
illogical controversy as the world never
witnessed. Through all this contro-
versy the Universalist church was pitted
against old orthodoxy. 1t was life
and death struggle between two COM
plete systems of religion; not on matters
of practice, but on the philosophy
of religious faith. The Universalists
boldly affirmed from the first, that the
fundamental doctrines of orthodoxy
were false, and of heather origin; and
that the whole system of orthodoxy
must be done away in order that
more perfect system might take its
place. 1t was upon this radical plat
form, that the Uniyersalist church or
ganiZed its churches and reared its in
situations; and it is upon this platform
she stands to-day. Tie Universalist
church not only refuted orthodoxy, but
it affirmed perfect system Of truth to
take its place. 1t began its creed by
affirming unqualified faith in the Bible;
it taught the oneness of God, and that |
all humanity were his offspring and
the objects of his amending love in both |
time and eternity; that salvation was
purity of heart and nearness to God
and that good would ultimately over
come all evil, and all souls be both holy
and happy. These grand truths were
triumphantly defended upon every TO
rum of discussion, proclaimed in the
valley and on the hilltop, and sancti-
fed at our affairs Of devotion, until the
music, poetry, literature, and philos-
ophy of this age is filed with their sup- |